Earl Anthony Wayne

Earl Anthony Wayne (born 1950) is a former American diplomat. Formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Ambassador to Argentina and Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan, Wayne served nearly four years as Ambassador to Mexico. He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in August, 2011.

He departed Mexico City for Washington July 31, 2015 and retired from the State Department on September 30, 2015. Wayne attained the highest rank in the U.S. diplomatic service: Career Ambassador. He is currently a Professorial Lecturer and Distinguished Diplomat in Residence at American University's School of International Service where he teaches courses related to diplomacy and US foreign policy. Wayne was co-chair of the Board for the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars until it closed in May 2025. He now serves in a similar Board role for the Mexico program at the Inter-American Dialogue. He is a non-resident advisor at the Atlantic Council, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is on the board of the Public Diplomacy Council of America, and is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Wayne is an independent consultant, speaker and writer and helps with several not-for-profit professional associations. He was an adviser for HSBC Latin America on improving management of financial crime risk from 2015 until 2019 and served on the board of the American Foreign Service Association from 2017 to 2019.

Life and education Earl Anthony Wayne was born in Sacramento, California, and grew up in nearby Concord, where he graduated from Mt. Diablo High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley (1972) where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, as well as being selected to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He continued his studies to earn master's degrees in political science from Stanford University (1973) and Princeton University (1975), and a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University (1984). He is known as "Tony" to close acquaintances and is married with two adult children.

Diplomatic career A career diplomat starting in 1975, Wayne first served as a China analyst in the Department of State and was then posted overseas as a political officer in Rabat, Morocco. He was assigned to serve in the Executive Secretariat at the State Department under Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie, in 1980. He worked as Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and George Shultz, from 1981 to 1983. He was named First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Paris heading a section following French politics and working to promote US-French anti-terrorism cooperation (1984–87) following a mid-career Masters of Public Administration at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1983–84).

After Paris, Wayne took a leave of absence to work as the national security correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor for two years. He returned to Foreign Service as the Director for Regional Affairs for the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Counter-Terrorism, from 1989 to 1991. He served as Director for Western European Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1991 until mid-1993. Wayne took up the post of Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the European Union working for Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat until 1996, when he returned to Washington as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Canada (1996–97).

In late May, 2010, Wayne took over the position of Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. In that role, under Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, he oversaw Embassy programs and staff, worked closely with the Afghan government, coordinated with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and with other elements of the international community and Afghan society. Wayne received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award and a Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (on the nomination of General David Petraeus) for his work in Afghanistan, as well as the Cordell Hull Award for Economic Achievement from the Department of State.

Ambassador to Mexico In May 2011, President Obama submitted Wayne's nomination to be the US Ambassador to Mexico. Wayne was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 2, and presented his credentials to President Felipe Calderón on September 13, 2011. During Wayne's tenure, the United States and Mexico expanded cooperation on economic, educational, public security and other issues. The two governments established a High Level Economic Dialogue, the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council, the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research, and a Bilateral Security Forum, while expanding cooperation under the $2.3 billion Mérida Initiative and on a range of border and travel issues. Trade, investment and tourism grew each year during Wayne's tenure. In 2014, the number of Mexicans studying in the U.S. doubled to over 30,000 and some 50 new university level partnerships were established, thanks to cooperation under the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education. Mission Mexico was chosen in 2014 by the State Department as the "Embassy to Watch" for its wide-ranging public-private partnerships, and in 2015, the Embassy was selected as one of three "Gender Champions" among U.S. Embassies world-wide for its efforts to support gender programs and good practices. Mission Mexico's outreach also grew massively during Wayne's tenure, for example, reaching 1 million Facebook likes for the Embassy alone by September, 2015. Wayne's work in Mexico was recognized by the U.S. and Mexican governments (see Recognition).

Recognition Confirmed by the Senate as a "Career Ambassador" (2010) (the most senior rank of the U.S. Foreign Service); Cordell Hull Award for Economic Achievement by Senior Officers (2010); Paul Wellstone Anti-Slavery Ambassador of the Year Award (2008); Department of State's Distinguished Honor Award (2005); Presidential Distinguished Service Award (2001); two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards (2012, 2005); Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (2011); Global Ambassador of Peace and Public Service, International House, University of California, Berkeley (2015); Order of the Aztec Eagle granted by Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade (2015). In October 2015, Wayne was chosen to receive the State Department's Charles E. Cobb Jr. Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development. In June 2017, the Director General of the Foreign Service awarded Wayne the Director General's Cup for the Foreign Service.